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[This version of the report has been edited by Dr Robert N Moles

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On 24 April 2008 Adrian Humphreys of the National Post reported “Did Baltovich case reveal more injustice?”

Prison Interview; Man jailed for attack committed by Paul Bernardo

He said, the acquittal of Robert Baltovich in the murder of his girlfriend may clear the way for the Ontario government to address the case of another man who was sent to prison for the attempted rape of a 15-year-old girl that police now agree was committed by Paul Bernardo. Evidence that Bernardo was responsible for an attack that an Ontario man was jailed for was disclosed in a series of admissions he made to Toronto police during a prison interview in April, 2006 and the apparent miscarriage of justice became a quiet yet controversial issue in the attempts to clear Mr. Baltovich.

At about 5:10 a.m. on Sept. 29, 1987, at a home just 800 metres from where Bernardo was staying in Scarborough, a man cut away the screen of a basement window, removed the glass and climbed inside. He went to the bedroom of a 15-year-old girl, jumped on her back and said: "Don't f--king say anything or I'll kill you. I have a knife," according to documents filed in court. The young victim felt a sharp object at the back of her neck. The noise woke the girl's mother who got out of bed to investigate. The sudden appearance of the woman startled the attacker and he fled.

That man was Bernardo, a court heard during recent pretrial motions in the case of Mr. Baltovich. Shortly after the attack, however, Toronto police had different ideas. Anthony Hanemaayer, who was 19 at the time, was charged in the attack. He was charged with break and enter and assault with a weapon, according to records filed at the time in Ontario Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty and went to trial on Oct. 17, 1989. At trial the victim's mother testified against him, identifying Mr. Hanemaayer as the man she saw in her daughter's bedroom. She based her identification on his ear size and by his eyes. On the second day of his trial, Mr. Hanemaayer changed his plea to guilty of assault and break and enter and the Crown withdrew the charge of assault with a weapon. That same day, he was sentenced to two years less a day plus time he spent in pre-trial custody. Long after Mr. Hanemaayer finished his sentence, Bernardo told police of the attack.

Bernardo said he had picked the girl as a target after he saw her with her family. He followed them home and, that same night, broke into the house with the intention of raping her. He revisited the home a few years after and stole a license plate because it featured the letters "KAR" which was a nickname Bernardo often used to refer to his wife Karla Homolka. Bernardo's account was bolstered when police investigating his claims found that a license plate was reported stolen from the house. Police concluded Bernardo was the true attacker, contrary to their earlier assertion.

Gerry Samulovitch, the lawyer who represented Mr. Hanemaayer in 1989, said he is mortified his client appears to have pleaded guilty to a crime he did not commit. "I feel awful about it," he said yesterday from his Montreal home. "But I really can't remember anything about it. We're talking 20 years ago. It's a blank." Mr. Samulovitch was interviewed by police as part of their investigation into the conviction, he said. (Mr. Samulovitch has not practiced law for about 10 years and is currently suspended from practice by the Law Society of Upper Canada for administrative reasons.)

The Crown attorney in Scarborough who prosecuted the case had a similar reaction. Robert Nuttall, who is now a Toronto defence lawyer, also remembered little. "If the fellow decided to plead guilty, really, that's coming from him," Mr. Nuttall told the National Post when it first revealed the investigation into the wrongful conviction last July. "Nobody likes to see an innocent man convicted." He could not be reached yesterday. The potential implications of arresting the wrong man, however, could be drawn far wider than judicial injustice and the trauma of Mr. Hanemaayer.

This incident was in the early months of Bernardo's attacks on women, his first occurring on May 4, 1987. That raises questions: If police had not arrested Mr. Hanemaayer, would they have then pressed on to arrest Bernardo? And if so, could his string of savage rapes and murders been nipped in the bud? "There is no doubt that if they had caught Paul Bernardo earlier there would be less women who were victims of him in the Scarborough [rapes] and Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy would be alive today" said Tim Danson, who represents the families of the murdered schoolgirls. "History has a habit of repeating itself," Heather Mc-Arthur, one of Mr. Baltovich's lawyers, wrote in a legal brief. "Already it seems that Paul Bernardo's recent confessions have exposed another wrongful conviction."

Toronto police submitted its report on the situation to the provincial Attorney-General last year, said Mark Pugash, spokesman for Toronto police. He could not comment further pending the government's response. The Crown attorney handling the case could not be reached for comment, yesterday. A lawyer representing Mr. Hanemaayer declined to comment. Attempts to contact Mr. Hanemaayer were unsuccessful.

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